True or False: Bands playing local nightclubs don’t have a chance with picky audiences unless they play top-40 hits and cover tunes. Answer? False. Although many musicians believe they must play cover tunes to “make it” with audiences, if you check out the most popular bands in Northern Michigan you’ll find that most play their own original tunes. Maybe August is among the select few bands—including the likes of Steppin’ In It, Domestic Problems and The Dopes—which have a large base of fans, yet play mostly originals. In fact, that creative impulse is what brought Maybe August together, says harmonica player Rosco Selley. “We started out about four years ago with four of us original members who had been playing with other bands around mid-Michigan,” Roscoe recalls. “All of us knew of each other and knew we were interested in being in a band that would play original music. We were at the point where we didn’t want to become rock stars, but we did want to play original music.”

MAKING THE SWITCH Making the switch to a mostly-originals band was a bit riskier on the band’s home turf of the Tri-Cities area of Bay City, Saginaw and Midland where top-40 sounds tend to rule local nightclubs. Yet today, Selley, along with bassist Keith Carolan, drummer Paul Hughes, acoustic guitarist/vocalist Scott Robertson and guitarist/mandolinist/vocalist Michael Robertson, have created a strong following outside the Tri-Cities, in places such as Northern Michigan and Chicago. Many in Northern Michigan will perhaps recall the Robertson brothers as being the former Michael Scott Band which performed as a popular duo here several years ago. The brothers were noted for their fresh sound and crisp musicianship: qualities that have transcended to Maybe August. The band blends a danceable acoustic rock sound with an offbeat romantic ballad vibe that makes them out-of-the-ordinary standouts on the music scene. Perhaps their bio information says it best: “Like most of the great new bands coming up, Maybe August is hard to pigeonhole. Are they a jam band? Are they sensitive singer songwriters? Are they radio-pop? Are they wanker virtuosos? Yes... yes they are. All of that stuff.” But even with that mixed bag of offerings, it’s no cakewalk for the band trying to navigate the latest club trends.“This isn’t a good time for new original music,” Selley notes. “People who go to clubs are in their 20s and 30s and the fashion is towards electronica and DJ music. We’re fortunate that there are places like Union Street Station in Traverse City that are still around and will never go away for people who like live music.”

NEW DISC Currently, the band is celebrating the release of their second CD, “Based on Actual Events,” a collection of 10 songs which they’re debuting at release parties across the state.“It takes a long time to create,” Selley says of the recording process. “The songwriting bar is set pretty high in our band and we like to road-test all of our songs with audiences before we take them into the studio. Something happens when you go live with a song: you find out what what goes well and what goes wrong. Playing live adds a whole different aspect to the music.”Asked the inevitable question of what bands Maybe August most resembles, Selley notes that their music is often compared to that of the Dave Matthews Band, Barenaked Ladies and Blues Traveler. “The quality of the musicians in this band is just freaking good,” he says. Audience reaction supports that claim: on their last swing through TC, Maybe August packed Union Street Station for the weekend and had the crowd up and dancing through their entire show. But there’s also a quiet side to the band that many fans miss out on: on a follow-up night in town, three members of Maybe August played an acoustic set to less than half-a-dozen listeners, performing ballads of an intense density for the joy of playing. A haunting harmonica solo by Rosco Selley on the Allman Brothers’ tune, “Melissa,” wove its spell for several minutes in a rare, inspired piece of musicianship that stamped the band with the imprimatur of top-blend performers.

THE NAME GAME Why the name, Maybe August? Selley alludes to a legal scuffle with film star Halle Barry’s peeps over the band’s original name. “There’s the legend, the semi truth and the boring truth on how we got our name,” he recalls. “We’re not allowed to talk about the legend anymore because Halle Barry’s lawyer said they’d sue us if we did, so we sat around for five or six months trying to come up with a new name, but it was always something stupid. Finally, we had to come up with something and someone said: ‘How about August?’ That turned into Maybe August.” What next for the band? “We want to open for Coldplay,” Selley says, adding that each member of the band is also self-employed, giving them the flexibility to go with the flow if something big turns up. “But more realistically, we want to keep doing what we’re doing and play places where we’re appreciated.” - Northern Michigan Express/ Robert Downes

Discography

A Fine How Do You Do - 2003Based on Actual Events - 2006

Photos

Bio

I'd like to introduce you to one of Michigan's premiere original bands called may-be au-gust. maybe august is music for people who have lived real lives and have stories to tell. People who work all day, play at night, raise families inbetween, and live the hell out of every today. maybe august exists mainly to give life to their original songs, and these are songs that should be heard by the masses. These guys are great ..bottomline ... and they will blow you away with their talent.

You won't get tattoos and black leather with maybe august. You won’t get snobby musician attitudes, either. What you will get is the perfect blend of excellent musicianship, top-notch songwriting, and phenomenal 3-part harmonies. Their style of music has been likened to Blues Traveler, Bare Naked Ladies, and John Mayer. Some of their songs are written to address real social issues (“Lies” and “Sale on Salvation” are examples), while others are pure funky, fun tunes (“Jessica”, "Naked", “Wish List”, and “Summertime”).

They have performed at venues and festivals all over the State of Michigan, as well as Chicago. Some of the most recent events include: 2009 Michigan Microbrew Summer Festival in Ypsilanti; 2009 Midland Summer Solstice Festival; and 2009 Northport's 4th of July Fireworks Festival. They have opened for national acts like REO Speedwagon and .38 Special at the Bay City Fireworks Festivals in past years, as well as The Coal Men from Nashville and Chicago's own Hello Dave. maybe august also performs at various venues like Kilkenny's Pub in Traverse City, The Livery in Benton Harbor, Czar's in St Joseph, Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, White's in Saginaw, the Midland Center for the Arts (our acoustic trio opened for the John Hiatt/Lyle Lovett concert last winter), the H Hotel Patio Outdoor Concert Series, and the list goes on and on!!

maybe august exists mostly to give life to their original songs. Though each song has one or two primary songwriters, every member of the band contributes to writing & arranging each song. With influences like John Hiatt, Dave Mathews, Glen Phillips, & Bare Naked Ladies, the songwriting bar is set high.

In the band's own words:

What is the purpose of this band bio?: a band bio is a piece of mostly fiction designed to impress venues, a& r people, promoters and fans and convince them to purchase band related services or swag.Who is in your band?: keith, bill, rosco, scott, and mikeWhat is the instrumentation in your band?: lots of instruments with strings and frets; many things you hit to make loud rhythmic noises; a small wind instrument that you blow in and suck on; many human voices; an impressive amount of devices to make things louder and alter their sound.What kind of music do you play/who are your influences?: we play songs we write, mostly. we would like to play only our songs, but that doesn’t seem to pay. people have been known to say we sound like dmb, blues traveler, bare naked ladies, and some more current and massively popular bands that we aren’t familiar with. our influences include, but are not limited to, 60s and 70s style country rock (byrds, eagles before they sucked, csny, etc), folk (but not the whiny kind), funk (but not the wimpy kind), kiss (one of us, at least), classic rock (no, we don’t do that one you want to hear), jam bands (the ones that also have real songs), Gram Parsons (obligatory hip, cool influence who is somewhat obscure but really, really cool to people in the biz and shows how hip and cool we are)What are your goals as a band?: gigs where we can play our own songs, mostly, and get paid. or at least have people dig it.Where have you played?: mostly in Michigan and the Midwest.I mean venues?: oh….uh, lots of festivals, lots of very cool music clubs, lots and lots of dumpy joints we won’t go back to, and, our least favorite: fat fish blue Why should people spend time and money to see/hear your band?: we are really good and fun to watch and listen to. really! anybody can hear our songs online and watch videos of us performing. you can judge for yourself. most of the videos are bad quality, but you can tell we’re cool. there is a lot of free audio out there.Why should we hire your band?: because you want to support good original music? okay then, because, right now - we’re still relatively cheap; get in on the ground floor.If you are so good, why haven’t we heard of you?: a massive conspiracy of revolving drummers who are determined to take us down. till now.

Sample Setlist

mostly original material; select covers like The Subdudes, Lyle Lovett, Pfish, Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Rusted Root, The Jayhawks, and even Snoop Dog! (and many more!) Our sets are usually one hour long unless we're performing for a festival.